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Hammond
Primary School
State-of-the-art learning environment enabled through thin client
technology at The Hammond Primary School
In 2003 Leverstock entirely designed, managed and installed a new
35-seat ICT suite at Hammond Primary School in Hemel Hempstead. The
school is a Hertfordshire community nursery and primary school
offering all ability educational provision for children aged 3-11
years.
Gail Porterfield, the Headteacher
explained the school's requirements:
"I wanted:-
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To provide a state-of-the-art
environment for our children, allowing for future growth and
technological advance.
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To maintain our school network of
up to six PCs and a printer in every classroom, linked admin PCs
and allow easy laptop access to the system.
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A link to our separate Nursery
building.
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A reliable system.
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To ensure that we did not become
dependent on one member of staff for maintenance.
I had a clear vision of the learning
environment I wanted to provide for our children. I investigated
several options, ranging from trolleys of laptops, to systems
available from major companies. None fulfilled a sufficient number
of my criteria. Most would sell kit, with little prospect of support
in the future.
Then I came across Leverstock, who had
installed an ICT suite in another local primary school. I visited,
viewed, explored, spoke with Richard Clarke, Managing Director at
Leverstock, and realised I had found a company whose staff shared my
vision of what children deserve in ICT. Here was the expertise and
passion to translate my requirements into a project plan.
Leverstock were the only company who
were prepared to be sufficiently flexible to accommodate the
requirements I had. Richard and his colleagues provided total system
installation management - essential for me, as I could not leave my
class or school management responsibilities to manage this project.
They have the experience in setting up systems for schools, and
could advise on everything from room design and software to setting up
security levels for users. We have a relationship where options for
future development can be discussed."
Leverstock's solution
A new 35-seat suite based on thin client technology, removing the
need for individual PCs and enabling the centralisation of all
applications. This has many benefits, not least the fact that
software needs only to be installed once, to be available on all the
terminals in the ICT suite.
The incorporation of existing old classroom PCs into the network
and converting them into thin client terminals. This removed the
need for expensive replacements and enabled the same applications to
be accessed in both the ICT suite and the classrooms.
Hands-on training, which was an integral part of the project,
ensuring that both teachers and pupils were comfortable with the new
technology.
Gail Porterfield is absolutely delighted with the new ICT suite,
named 'The Heywood Suite' after Anne Heywood, the then Deputy
Headteacher at the school.
"The new installation more than
fulfilled my expectations. All work was carried out on time with
minimal disruption. We now have a wonderful ICT suite which is a
pleasure for staff and pupils to work in. Choosing Leverstock as our
provider of this complete solution has been a great decision!"
Since the installation of the suite Gail has continued to work in
partnership with Leverstock in an on-going programme to ensure that
the teaching of all subjects takes advantage of the latest
technological advances in ICT. This has included the installation of
laptops and interactive whiteboards throughout the school. The
school now has a wireless network giving total coverage throughout
the school, its own e-mail system based on Microsoft Exchange Server
and staff use iPAQs to work wherever they are.
In February 2004 Hammond School was amongst the first schools in
Hertfordshire to be awarded the Naacemark quality assurance for ICT
in Education. Gail adds:
"Leverstock helped
make this award possible by providing a reliable state of the art
ICT platform and sharing our vision of excellence in ICT."
The story continued as later in 2004, Leverstock transformed an
area which was unused and unsuitable for teaching into a new
Learning Resource Centre, followed by a new Internet Café.
By choosing thin client technology, Hammond have been able to
invest their ICT budgets, not in replacement equipment but into
buying new additional equipment thus allowing them to further
improve their ICT facilities and increase their pupil:ICT ratio.
The original ICT Suite is still performing today as well as the
day it was installed. There has been no down-time due to failures or
equipment becoming obsolete. With new equipment added each year,
their pupil:ICT ratio now stands at better than 2:1 – a fantastic
achievement for a primary school.
In 2008, Leverstock recommended a completely new approach to
using ICT in teaching. This involved the provision of mobile desking
units in the classroom each enabling six pupils to work with
individual combined monitor/thin client terminals, thereby giving
the pupil the opportunity for whole curriculum learning from his/her
computer at any time they wanted.
It was decided to transform Year 3 classroom in this way. The
school discarded all the old desks with five new desking units,
thereby providing 30 pupils each with their own dedicated learn
space. The units being mobile also gives Hammond the flexibility for
their future use should they decide to make changes around the
classrooms.
This is a completely innovative and unique way of using ICT in
teaching. The children are given freedom to use the computers for
research, to communicate and to develop their ICT skills. They are
able to select what they feel is the most appropriate way to record
their work, giving them control over their learning.
This proved so successful that the mobile desking units, along
with thin client technology, has now been added to further
classrooms.
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